María D. Quintero | JFK Library Foundation / JFK Presidential Library and Museum
It is not uncommon to look around these days and wonder “how did we get here” and what should we as a field be doing so people can better understand how the trajectory of our past brought us to this moment. Now more than ever, we need to center empathetic and humanistic structures.
Empathy is a powerful tool in facilitating our understanding of the past. With it, we can better examine how humans in a different time and place experienced the world around them and the context under which they made choices. While we might apply this empathetic understanding to our historic subject matter, we often fail to utilize a similar understanding within our present, be it our peer relationships, workplaces, or professional networks.
Pushing our field towards a more humane approach will be a challenge and may, at times, seem entirely out of reach, but public history workplace cultures are put to the test in private moments. The things left unsaid, the hushed whispers among colleagues, and how one feels about showing up to work the next day all impact our sustainability and wellbeing as public historians.
In a society that prides itself as hyper-independent, making space for our shared humanity can be actively devalued. Without improved professional workplaces that center humanity and operationalize empathy, we risk further entrenching burnout, isolation, and irrelevance as a field.
In an earlier career path, my job centered on building emotional wellness and improving campus culture for teens. One of the first steps to establish trust with and among students was to introduce and practice the power of empathy. When describing empathy to students the adage of “walking in someone else’s shoes” is often an illustrative description. While students were often familiar with this phrase, we quickly introduced that walking in someone else’s shoes is not successful without taking off one’s own first, making sure to address the limitations and barriers that often hinder connection and understanding.
As outreach and program manager, I focus much of my work on two big buckets: building meaningful community relationships and shaping experiences that center connection with each other while exploring the past. Building good workplace relationships across departments and among external partners can allow us to better serve external audiences. Creating public programs for people from a variety of age groups and backgrounds—be it one-hour experiences, multigenerational engagement, or repeat visitation opportunities—starts by first analyzing and evaluating internal resources and staff engagement.
Of the many challenges to achieving more human-centered workplace norms, the largest roadblock is the limitation of time. It is not uncommon for public historians to find themselves severely overworked. We have all seen the job descriptions that obviously combine multiple positions into one barely livable salary. Genuine connection and understanding cannot be rushed—it requires time to adapt and build trust amongst each other and with our public. While we often cannot create more time, we can prioritize the allocation of time and resources. All too often the leadership development in our field relies on external models from the corporate or tech disruptors. Abandoning the unique attributes of successful public history within our offices and workplaces can create desperation and fear among colleagues.
Some core characteristics at the heart of improving our workplace cultures through human-centered empathy include:
- Everyone can lead from their sphere of influence
- Awareness of power and privilege – How can we use our awareness of power and privilege to create an easier career path for those who are in more vulnerable positions?
- Opportunities to build connections – What opportunities are facilitated for conversation to lead to meaningful connections beyond work product across departments and hierarchies?
- Leadership means supporting others’ growth
- Empowering peers through accountability – What systems do you have in place that encourage mentorship and the empowering of colleagues to share authority while keeping us accountable to each other?
- Emotional intelligence to encourage autonomy – Do you take time to understand the unique values and motivation of colleagues and stakeholders so each of us efficiently owns specific successes instead of a top-down credit structure?
- Humility and curiosity instead of overconfidence
- Acknowledge limitations by learning from mistakes – No matter how empathetic you are, are you cognizant of your limitations to fully understand an experience outside your own and model learning from mistakes to others?
- Center the needs of the most vulnerable – With an understanding of intersectionality, do you design your work so people who hold the least privilege among us can successfully participate?
- Challenging hierarchies to democratize internal structures
- Flexible roles and responsibilities – Are there opportunities for people to shift roles and responsibilities to allow their own expertise to shine?
- Bottom-up feedback and definitions of success – Do you make assessment of success start by valuing the perspectives of frontline, entry level, and support staff to hold leadership accountable to the workforce?
- Respectful conflict can bread clarity, clear communication is kindness
- Extend grace equitably – Empathy requires connection: how do you make time to build trust with those whom you do not have a lot in common with so you are kind and validating of circumstances you have not experienced?
- Active listening to understand with open-ended questions – Does your leadership approach inquiry from curiosity instead of judgement (how/what instead of why/do) and allow space and time between listening and responding?
- Collectively established values centered and operationalize them with behaviors
- Match resource prioritization based on values – How can we make sure our highest priority values and missions have the resources they need behind them, and that we are allocating time and funds based on values?
- Openly address the existing gaps in living up to championed values – Can we develop and maintain a culture that allows us to recognize and call out misalignments between our stated values and our actions, and an environment where we work together to close those gaps?
Every one of us has a role to play in strengthening empathetic values and seeing each other as humans first—collectively practicing our ability to value each other beyond our work product. With empathetic leadership as a starting point, let’s push towards radical empathy with a deep commitment and understanding of what is at stake and a willingness to use whatever power is at one’s disposal to achieve justice in moments of social and moral urgency for our field at this watershed moment.